No Such Thing As Free Lunch
Chapter 10:
It was a surprisingly enjoyable breakfast, and it lasted a surprisingly long time. He was supposed to arrive at the bookstore by ten o'clock, but he did not notice time passing, until glancing at his watch, he realized he was five minutes late for work. Frowning, he checked the wristwatch again, unable to believe what it told him.
"What?" Kagome asked, slurping down the remnants of her milkshake. Yes, a milkshake. She had ordered a milkshake for breakfast. Not tea or coffee. Not a pastry or soup, a rolled omelet or any other normal type of food. If ice cream was an option on the menu, then it seemed to instantly win her approval.
"I would seem I'm late for work."
Sesshoumaru pulled out his wallet, before she could protest about splitting the bill. Waiting for a server might take too long. He would simply pay for the entire meal, for the sake of expediency. It wasn't as though he needed a part-time job, in order to pad his wallet. The job was simply a task that his father had invented out of thin air, due to brainwashing from an evil stepmother. Of course, explaining all of these details to Kagome would take too long. Instead, he threw some bills down on the table.
"Late? Late! Oh!" she echoed in distress. "I'm so sorry!"
He shrugged, not overly concerned about being behind schedule. The confusing part was that he had not noticed until now. Normally, he obsessed over details. This morning was exceptional in many ways.
Quickly, Kagome reached into her pockets to search for money, then rose to her feet with a mortified expression. "I'm... I didn't bring any..."
Once again, Sesshoumaru shrugged, unconcerned. He had already paid for the entire meal in any case.
She blushed slightly, following him out of the shop.
It had been enjoyable to talk to her. As she returned to her normal happy-go-lucky, energetic state, they had discussed various classes at school, and she had offered an intelligent opinion on a few teachers that he remembered from earlier grades. Next, she had spun tales about low test scores in middle school. She was not stupid, she assured him – she excused the low scores by explaining that she often got sick. Miraculously, the dates of her illnesses tended to coincide with the dates of any test that she had wished to avoid. At first, Sesshoumaru was completely gullible, accepting this excuse as reality. It was not until she began to giggle, when he had realized what she was actually saying. She had purposefully skipped some exams! He had chastised her, and she had promised it did not occur anymore. Only in middle school.
The conversation had been funny and light-hearted, and he felt completely relaxed. Perhaps that was why he had forgotten the time. Trivial conversation felt so... pleasant.
Quietly, Sesshoumaru pondered how long he had spent, alone, with a girl during high-school. He could not come up with much. Mostly, girls did not spend one-on-one time with a boy, unless they were dating.
Except this was not a date, because he had never intended it to be, and she had never expected it to be.
So, what did that make it?
Gah! Why did he have to think of that? Where did the thought even come from? How ridiculous. Drinking coffee with Kagome, it should not be labeled and categorized as a "Special Event." The blue-eyed girl was in a different grade. They had no friends in common. Besides, she was getting over his half-brother. He had to scrub these thoughts from his mind, straight away.
Beside him, Kagome was still following along. With a sigh, Sesshoumaru glanced over at her. "You don't need to follow me to work. I'm sure you have better things to do with your Saturday."
She just smiled. "Nah. Compared to you, I am a slacker. Inuyasha says you have always filled up your weekends with extra-curricular activities."
He snorted. "Untrue. I enjoy my free time, as much as the next person."
"What do you normally do?" she persisted. "Before you had a part-time job, I mean."
"Reading," he admitted. "Books are almost always interesting."
"Ooh! I like reading too!" she cried out happily. It seemed that she became very excited to learn they had a similar interest. Even a small one. "What type of books do you enjoy the most?"
Sesshoumaru paused to consider the question. Distinguish between certain types of books? No, no. He actually enjoyed them all. It would be easier to state the few types of books that he would not read.
But when he explained this to her, Kagome merely laughed. She did not believe it. "Oh, really?" she teased. "So, the only books you skip are romance novels, and only if they are badly written? No one reads each and every book in the library, just for fun."
He paused. Was it a trick question? "Actually, I did that, in elementary and middle-sch..."
With a squeal, she interrupted. "No way! You read every book in the library?" Kagome continued. "How do you decide which books to read?"
He nodded happily. At least, she seemed to believe him now. "I start with 'A'," Sesshoumaru stated flatly.
Crossing the street, he moved a few steps onto the next sidewalk, before he realized that she was not walking beside him any longer. He looked back to find she had stopped with her jaw wide-open, staring at him in amazement. Then, scurrying to retake her position, she joined him on the other side of the road.
"I've never met someone as disgustingly determined as you," she decided firmly. "Started with A, finished with Z? Hmph."
To be fair, he conceded on a minor point. "Well... they did have smaller libraries in those schools."
The rest of the day would be useless, if she followed him to work. He would be distracted and unable to study. But strangely enough, Sesshoumaru did not mind a bit. He allowed her to follow.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You can't 'practice' a practice-test!" Kagome argued from where she sat, near the check-out counter in the bookstore.
He had arrived fifteen minutes late, but Totosai had not cared at all. In fact, the old man had been excited about the fact that he brought a guest. If he was going to advertise the presence of the shop, Totosai had exclaimed, then Sesshoumaru could be late any day he wanted.
Next, the old shopkeeper had dragged Kagome on a tour. The young girl had been dutifully awed and impressed by everything that she saw, but eventually, she returned to the front of the store. The moment she saw that Sesshoumaru was studying, she had interrupted him. Of course, he had made the mistake of answering her question, and then, they had been drawn into this argument.
"I want to perform well," he countered. "And the deadline for early acceptance at universities is sooner than you'd think."
"But if you practice what is meant to be a practice-test at the cram school, then... you're really taking a practice-practice test. And that's just obscene." She wiggled her fingers in midair, just in case he did not perceive the emphasis she laid on the word "practice." He shrugged. He seemed to be doing a lot of that, around this girl. She was amusing, but also puzzling, since her mind worked in a very different way.
Closing the booklet and the textbook next to him, he swiveled the chair to face her. "What else am I supposed to do?" he asked. "If Totosai wants me to restock or remove anything, he will inform me. Otherwise I just tend the cash-register. And there are approximately ten customers per day. Boring."
She blushed at this, and he eyed her curiously, wondering what portion of his idle remark could have embarrassed her. "Oh... um..." muttered Kagome, looking away. "Well, if you are bored you could always have friends come visit you in the store!"
Met with absolute silence, the younger girl appeared to grow even more nervous.
"Or you could read the books in here," she said next, switching the subject away from friends and onto a hobby, "It's a 'rare' bookstore, and you said that you like those."
This suggestion actually did catch his attention. Sesshoumaru had been wanting to explore the store more thoroughly. He would love to read some of the material... Yet he had firmly instructed himself to put schoolwork and exams first, before frittering away time on other activities. Reading was a hobby. It shouldn't consume his existence.
Hmm. Wasn't there a word for someone like him? Bibliophile, perhaps? It probably was unhealthy to desire to read every piece of printed material on the planet (except magazines and romance novels).
When he did not answer for the second time in a row, Kagome lost her nerve completely. "Or you could just study," she mumbled dispiritedly. "Model student... Gah!"
Words were not something of which he had an endless supply, like the girl in front of him. Still, he tried to comfort her, because Kagome sounded so disappointed by his lack of conversational skills.
"I enjoyed eating breakfast with you," he began slowly, changing the topic since he disliked speaking about himself. Besides, he actually had enjoyed this morning. It seemed like she should know. "Although I have never seen anyone consume so much ice cream, before lunch."
Instantly, her sparkly, outgoing nature returned. Apparently, he was able to cheer her up without trying very hard. And that was good. Talking to her did not tire him, like it did when he spoke to other girls at school, sometimes.
"Oh no! Don't make fun of my milkshake, not anymore. You already hurt its feelings earlier."
Anthropomorphism... of a milkshake? That was new. Helpless to do otherwise, he played along. "The milkshake is dead, inside of your stomach, woman," he huffed. "You consumed it over an hour ago."
Her eyes grew wide and startled, and for a second, he worried that he had upset or insulted her, by calling her a 'woman' instead of using her name. It had only been a joke. Maybe not a particularly good one, but still, the best he could do on short notice.
But it quickly became clear that she didn't mind, and she was still playing a part. "Be careful what you say. The milkshake has become one with my stomach, and so he has ascended to higher levels of consciousness now. He might hear you."
"The milkshake was male?" In what possible, conceivable way could a milkshake have a masculine gender? Sesshoumaru didn't even want to understand.
She laughed, a bright, carefree sound, before sobering. The smile remained. "I... enjoyed breakfast too."
Then, Kagome shifted her weight from foot to foot, her earlier unease beginning to return. "Well, I suppose I will see you at school, on Monday," she said bashfully. "I don't want to... take your entire day. Even if it does sound boring, sitting in a bookstore all day. Studying! What fun."
Slowly, he nodded and sent her a questioning look. Her attitude would change from happy to funny to shy, only to repeat this cycle many times in a row. It was a little disturbing.
"Have a good weekend?" he offered finally, when she didn't move for a while.
"Oh! Yes. Right," she smiled again. "You too!"
Now, the happy version of Kagome was back again. It was maddening, watching her mood shift. As she left, he rubbed his forehead in confusion.
Was there something that he had missed, here?
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Monday morning was blissfully quiet, since he arrived before other students began to appear. Autumn was progressing and the weather had grown colder, so the school would be switching on the heaters in only a few weeks, but for now, the empty silence of the hallways was unbroken, even by the humming of a fan. Sesshoumaru unloaded textbooks from his bag to the locker, then closed the metal door and paced toward the classroom for his first period.
He was early enough that he would beat the professor, but late enough that he would see Kikyou when he arrived. The other class-representative had been much more friendly, since her revelation to him last week. Well, she had become 'much more friendly' for Kikyou, which was only a mild improvement where anyone else was concerned. They did not discuss life in depth, not really. Both of them remained too polite and reserved.
Another pair of footsteps sounded in the hallway. The third-year paused to listen. The steps were moving quickly, as if the person was hurrying, but he couldn't fathom why someone would hurry, when students had almost thirty minutes before class began. Hmm. The footsteps followed a path that seemed to swerve directly by his locker, only to halt, and then to proceed in his direction.
Soon, a small, black-haired individual spun around the corner, and he stared in disbelief. Breathless from running, Kagome was holding a brightly wrapped box aloft in her hands. She stopped when she saw him, halfway down the hall.
"Oh! Good. You're still here!" she chirped. "I thought I would be too late, I made a late-start this morning, but I remembered that you usually came around this time, only I thought you might not be coming so early, anymore, now that we didn't have an agreement about lunches!"
Quickly clamping her lips shut to contain any further babble that might emerge, she walked the rest of the way forward and stretched out her arms. The package in her hands was obviously food. "I made you lunch," she explained, needlessly – he had seen plenty of lunch-boxes packed by Kagome Higurashi.
He stared. Their previous agreement was over, and she knew it. Whether or not she had continued to make lunches for both Inuhito brothers, just for a while, it no longer applied to the situation now. Inuyasha and Kagome had stopped dating, so no more lunches for the little brother, and definitely no more tag-along lunches for the big brother.
Oh, hell. Did she . . . ? No. Surely not.
His palm hovered over the lid of the box, as though it might bite him. Finally, he relaxed his arm down at his side, without touching it. Did she believe they were dating, because he had paid for a single meal, on the weekend? That was not what he had intended, when he walked to a coffee shop with her on Saturday.
She shrank backward, when he lowered his arm, and she defensively pulled the box closer to her chest. "Not that I..." she stumbled over the words, "I just remembered how you... Of course, you don't need any more lunches, but I remember you asked for a hundred, initially, so I thought..."
"You do not owe me anything, Higurashi," he frowned. And he made certain to use her last name, this time, to create distance.
"I know," admitted Kagome, "But I'm terrible at math, mediocre at every other subject, and cooking is one of the few things I do well."
Kagome evidently believed he was a deprived soul, and he needed food. That he was so desperate for attention that he would request home-made meals from a complete stranger. That he had taken her on a 'date' that weekend, perhaps, when they ate breakfast together. She had no idea that providing for Rin was his true motivation.
Damn it.
Technically, he had never eaten a single meal that Kagome prepared – he gave them all to the little girl. And it was funny, but . . . for the first time, he actually wanted to accept, just for himself, not to pass along the gift to anyone else.
However, he could not. Because there might be a hidden meaning to the gift, he could not accept it. He had set himself up for this failure.
"Thank you," he replied, "But no. There is no reason for you to make any extra effort for my sake."
She seemed to wilt like a flower in too much heat, blue-eyes growing clouded and troubled. Once again, he wondered if he had completely mishandled or misinterpreted the situation. Yet he didn't know what else to say.
This was not the feisty young girl that he recalled meeting at the outset of the year. While he had not enjoyed their initial encounters, at the very least, he had... admired... Kagome for her spunk. He recalled the angry letter that she penned, accusing him of being a bad person for stealing Inuyasha's girlfriends, for denying Inuyasha's happiness. He thought of the way she had angrily renounced his half-brother, later, for flirting with other girls. She definitely had spirit. She upheld her own high standards, refusing to settle for second best.
And right now, her actions seemed wrong. Out of character. He did not like to watch timid behavior. Nor did he want to listen to frantic apologies by his front-gate, early in the morning.
But how to fix it? Without fully understanding the problem, it seemed like the best he could do was distance himself. Hopefully, the fire he remembered in her eyes would return soon.